Shida Kuo

From the “Botany” series, this sculpture wrests for an interpretive form derived from nascent plant or organ-like shapes. Kuo often attempts to capture and study similarly aligned responses from disparate elements and cultures in his art, seeking materials that might adequately transform into or convey a loose and hypnagogic bodily form.

Through sculpture, Shida Kuo seeks to understand material subjectivity in forms of representation, and the differing levels of reaction from particular elements or symbols when resubmitted or detached from their original contexts. This untitled piece comes from a figurative lineage — the form of a root or branch cast in low-fire clay and given naturalistic tonality through the use of oxides — but its strange detachment and stylised appearance steers away from simple depiction and suggests an unanswered narrative or emblematic presence.